exam 2 terms Flashcards
What is autobiographical memory?
Memory of events and experiences from one’s own life, often involving both episodic and semantic memory.
What brain areas are involved in autobiographical memory retrieval?
Hippocampus: Critical for forming and retrieving episodic memories.
Amygdala: Involved in emotional processing and enhancing memory for emotionally significant events.
Prefrontal Cortex: Plays a key role in organizing and retrieving autobiographical memories, as well as self-reflection.
Temporal Cortex: Important for processing semantic aspects of autobiographical memory (facts and general knowledge).
Occipital Cortex: Involved in visual processing, contributing to the vividness of memories.
What is Conway’s hierarchical organization?
A framework for understanding how autobiographical memories are structured, with events being organized into life periods and themes.
How are general events represented in memory?
General events include cumulative memories of similar events or extended events representing a sequence of episodic events.
What are life periods in autobiographical memory?
Personal ways in which we organize memories, such as ‘when I was in college’ or ‘before I got married.’
What is an extended event in autobiographical memory?
A representation of a series of connected episodic events, like a two-week vacation.
What is infantile amnesia?
The inability to recall memories from the first three to five years of life.
What aids memory retrieval?
Strongly associated retrieval cues, such as category cues or first letter cues.
What does the self-memory system involve?
The interconnectedness of self and memory, maintaining coherence (consistency with the self) and correspondence (accuracy with past events).
What are correspondence and coherence in autobiographical memory?
Coherence is the consistency of memories with the self, while correspondence ensures memories match actual past events.
What is confabulation?
Memory errors where fabricated or distorted memories are produced without the intention to deceive.
What are disputed memories?
Memories where individuals feel the event is their own, but it actually belongs to someone else.
What is a flashbulb memory?
A vivid, detailed memory of a significant or surprising event, often with high confidence.
What is the reminiscence bump?
The tendency to recall more memories from late adolescence to early adulthood (ages 16–25).
What did the Simcock & Hayne studies demonstrate?
Language development aids memory retention, as young children could only recall objects they had words for at the time of the event.
What is positivity bias?
The tendency to remember more positive memories than negative ones, especially in the reminiscence bump.
What is procedural memory?
Memory for motor and cognitive skills that are acquired through repetition and practice.
How does procedural memory differ from declarative memory?
Procedural memory involves skills and behaviors, whereas declarative memory involves facts and events.
How are habits formed?
Habits begin as intentional actions and become automatic through repetition, often triggered by contextual cues.
What determines expertise in a field?
Practice with feedback and talent are key factors in developing expertise.
What is the difference between open loop and closed loop perceptual motor skills?
Open loop skills are performed without feedback, while closed loop skills rely on feedback for adjustments.
What role does talent play in skill acquisition?
As practice increases, the influence of talent becomes more significant in determining performance.
Which brain structure plays a key role in motor skill acquisition?
The basal ganglia is involved in motor skill learning and performance.
How is Parkinson’s disease related to the basal ganglia?
Parkinson’s disease is characterized by damage to the basal ganglia, impairing motor skills and procedural memory.
What are the three stages of skill acquisition in Fitts’ model?
Cognitive stage (learning rules), Associative stage (actions become stereotyped), Autonomous stage (actions become automatic).
What is the spacing effect?
The phenomenon where learning is more effective when practice is spaced out over time rather than crammed.
What does the power law of learning suggest?
The greatest improvement in skill happens early, and gains become smaller with more practice.
What is semantic memory?
A type of long-term memory that involves facts, concepts, and general knowledge.
How is semantic memory represented in the brain?
Semantic memory is stored in the anterior-ventral regions of the cortex.
What is sentence verification in memory research?
A task where participants decide if a sentence is true or false as a measure of semantic memory retrieval speed.
What is the Collins & Quillian model of semantic memory?
It suggests that words are linked to other words in a network, and closely related words are verified faster.
What is spreading activation in semantic memory?
The process by which activation spreads from one concept to related concepts in the semantic network.
What is the DRM procedure?
A method for studying false memory, where participants are shown words related to a theme and later recall words they didn’t see.
What type of memory is involved in remembering faces?
Facial recognition involves both semantic and episodic memory.
Why is memory functional and adaptive?
Memory allows us to store knowledge and past experiences to predict future events and guide behavior.
What is the difference between categories and concepts in memory?
Concepts are mental representations of ideas, while categories are groups of related concepts.
What are the three levels of categorization?
Basic level (e.g., ‘dog’), subordinate level (e.g., ‘poodle’), and superordinate level (e.g., ‘animal’).
What is the lexicon?
The mental dictionary of words, including their meanings, sounds, and uses.
How is semantic memory organized?
It is organized into large conceptual structures like schemas, scripts, and frames to facilitate learning and retrieval.
What is prosopagnosia?
A condition where individuals cannot recognize faces, often due to damage in the fusiform face area (FFA).
What is false memory?
A memory that is distorted or fabricated, often influenced by suggestion or external factors.
What did Loftus’ research on false memories demonstrate?
False memories can be created through suggestion and can be vivid and persistent.
What did Clancy’s research on false memories reveal?
Individuals can develop vivid memories of events that never occurred, such as alien abductions.
How does the DRM procedure relate to false memory?
It demonstrates how participants can recall words they never saw, showing the malleability of memory.
What is fuzzy trace theory?
A theory suggesting that memories are stored as general impressions rather than specific details.
What is Johnson’s theory on source monitoring?
Source monitoring involves the process of determining the origin of a memory, and errors in this process can lead to false memories.
What is the difference between reality monitoring and source monitoring?
Reality monitoring involves distinguishing between real and imagined events, while source monitoring involves determining the origin of memories.
What brain areas are involved in reality and source monitoring?
The prefrontal cortex plays a key role in these processes, particularly in distinguishing between different sources of memory.
How do failure to rehearse and suppression affect memory?
Lack of rehearsal or deliberate suppression can lead to difficulty in recalling or maintaining memories.
What techniques are used to study source monitoring?
Techniques like false memory experiments and brain imaging studies help investigate how people determine the origins of their memories.
What is episodic memory?
Memory for specific events and experiences, including their time, place, and context.
Which brain regions are involved in episodic memory?
The hippocampus and medial temporal lobes are crucial for episodic memory.
What was the focus of Craik and Lockhart’s levels of processing theory?
The theory emphasizes that deeper processing (attending to meaning) leads to better memory retention.
What are the levels of processing in memory?
Shallow processing involves surface features, while deep processing involves meaningful connections and elaboration.
What is elaborative processing?
A type of deep processing where information is encoded by making meaningful connections to existing knowledge.
What is rote rehearsal?
Repetition of information to retain it in memory, but it is less effective than elaborative processing.
What are the adaptive functions of episodic memory?
Episodic memory helps us learn from past experiences and plan for future actions.
What does neuropsychological evidence suggest about semantic and episodic memory?
Damage to the hippocampus affects episodic memory more than semantic memory, supporting their distinction.
What did Casey’s 2016 movie viewing study explore?
The study explored how episodic memory for specific events, like watching a movie, is processed and remembered.
